Egyptian food discovery and ordering platform elmenus has secured an investment from Julian Dames, foodora’s co-founder and DeliveryHero vice president, who will also join the company’s board of advisors.
Founded in 2011 by Amir Allam, elmenus was launched to help people find the food they love. It recently launched online ordering, and has over one million monthly users.
The Cairo-based startup raised US$1.5 million in Series A funding from Algebra Ventures in 2017 to take on the underserved online ordering market in Egypt, and has now raised additional funds from Dames. Dames founded German food delivery startup foodora, and after its acquisition by DeliveryHero fulfilled a variety of roles there, most recently vice president for international marketing.
“elmenus has a compelling position in the large Egyptian food delivery market. Their delivery order numbers in the first few months have been very impressive,” said Dames.
“The mainly phone-based market is just on the verge of going online. As a native Egyptian player with well-established positioning as the consumer’s go-to platform, and with strong ties in the restaurant sector, elmenus will be able to focus on features that are relevant for the Egyptian user, which may prove advantageous against the global competitors.”
Allam said Dames’ experience and insights would help accelerate the startup’s growth and sharpen its focus.
“We’re obsessively personalising and enhancing users’ food experiences at scale. We’re very excited about working with Julian to take on the Egyptian food market; his bet on our vision is great validation for us,” he said.
